LETTER 


OP 


HON.  WILLIAM  ALLEN,  OF  OHIO, 


TO  THE 


YOUNG  MEN’S  DEMOCRATIC  CONVENTION, 


HELD 


AT  COLUMBUS,  OHIO, 

JULY  28,  1842. 


WASHINGTON: 
PRINTED  AT  THE  GLOBE  OFFICE 


1842. 


I 


( 


1 


*1 

i 


> 


LETTER. 


Extract  from  the  proceedings  of  the  Young  Men's 
Democratic  Convention,  held  at  Columbus,  on  the 
28 th  July,  1842. 

By  consent  of  the  convention, 

Mr.  Morgan  presented  and  read  the  following: 
letter,  addressed  to  that  body  from  Senator  Allen, 
of  Ohio,  which  was  ordered  to  be  published  in  the 
general  proceedings: 

Washington  City,  July  23,  1842. 
My  Dear  Sir:  Your  obliging  letter  of  the  8th 
instant  came  to  me  several  days  since;  and  would 
have  been  immediately  answered,  but  for  the  pres¬ 
sure  of  business  with  which  I  could  not  dispense. 

I  should  be  gratified,  I  assure  you,  were  it  in  my 
power  to  attend,  as  you  invite  me,  the  Young 
Men’s  State  Convention  on  the  28th  mst.  I  should 
be  gratified  for  other  reasons;  but  especially  so,  that 
I  might  there  be  able  to  take  once  more  by  the 
hand  hundreds  of  the  noble  spirits  whom  it  is  my 
pride  to  call  personal,  as  well  as  political  friends; 
and  with  many  of  whom  I  became  first  acquainted 
when  traversing  the  State,  to  offer  my  little  aid  in 
the  contest  of  1838,  and  in  the  more  terrible  strug 
gle  of  1840  But  the  madness  of  the  dominant 
majority  seems  likely  to  make  this  session  of  Con¬ 
gress  as  long,  as  it  has  already  made  it  odious;  and 
I  have,  therefore,  no  prospect  ©f  being  present  in 
person.  In  soul  and  in  sentiment,  however,  I  shall 
be  with  the  Democracy  then,  and  always,  whilst  I 
have  reason  enough  left  to  appreciate  the  value  of 
freedom. 

When  the  convention  meets,  it  will  find  the  Fed¬ 
eral  Government,,  for  the  first  time,  brought  down 
by  its  own  acts,  in  sixteen  months  of  the  profound- 
est  peace,  to  a  point  of  distress  as  low  and  as 
humiliating  as  could  well  have  resulted  from  the 
most  protrac  ed  and  disasirous  war.  This  great 
calamity  is  the  first-born  offspring  of  Federalism, 
since  it  assumed  the  name  of  Wbigery,  and  em¬ 
bodied  its  principles  and  its  passions  in  the  form  of 
a  National  Administration. 

For  many  years  prior  to  1840,  the  leaders  of 
that  party  bad  been  busily  collecting  into  a  com¬ 
mon  focus  all  the  diseased  elements  of  society.  In 
that  year  they  found  the  public  mind  frettul  and 
restless.  They  found  thousands  discontented,  whom 
the  reaction  of  their  own  system  of  currency  and 
credit  had  ruined.  They  found  banks,  bankrupt¬ 
cy,  indolence,  avarice,  rapacity,  impudence,  venali¬ 
ty,  proiigacy,  cupidity,  and  fraud,  all  standing 
ready  to  league  with  ambition  for  the  power  and 
plunder  of  the  country.  The  league  was  formed, 
and  every  feeling  of  the  human  heart,  that  lay 
within  the  reach  of  terror  or  corruption,  was  then 
stimulated  into  revolt  against  the  Democratic  party. 
The  prices  of  all  things  were  suddenly  reduced,  be¬ 
cause  the  politicians  had  prompted  the  banks  thus 


to  aggravate  the  public  distresses,  by  the  reduction 
of  their  discounts  and  circulation.  The  people 
were  openly  treated  with  contempt,  by  the  brutality 
of  the  appeals  made  to  their  senses.  Fraud  and 
folly,  the  most  criminal  and  ridiculous,  were  em¬ 
ployed  to  distract  their  attention,  bewilder  their 
minds,  and  mislead  their  action.  To  affect  their 
imaginations,  everything,  from  the  gorgeous  en- 
sien  of  the  Republic,  with  its  stars  and  stripes 
streaming  from  its  halyards,  down  to  the  skin  of 
the  most  loathsome  skunk,  was  displayed  to  the 
popular  eye.  Globes  and  cabins,  banners  and 
bushes,  barrels  and  brutes,  harangue  and  mu¬ 
sic,  revelry  and  feasting,  the  song  and  the  bottle, 
imprecations,  blasphemy,  badges,  and  buffoonery — 
all  things  that  could  minister  to  confusion,  were 
made  to  chime  in  the  general  din.  R.eason  was 
silenced  in  the  turmoil,  and  truth,  for  once  in 
our  country,  yielded  its  empire  to  falsehood, 
fraud,  and  frivolity.  If  these  leaders  condescend¬ 
ed,  for  a  moment,  to  speak  seriously  to  the  peo¬ 
ple,  it  was  but  to  denounce  things  as  abuses  which 
did  not  exist,  and  to  make  pledges  of  reform  they 
never  intended  to  fulfil.  They  deplored  the  scar¬ 
city  of  money  they  had  themselves  occasioned, 
and  promised  abundance  on  their  accession  to 
power.  They  condemned  removal  from  office  for 
the  sake  of  opinion,  and  invoked  Heaven  to  wit¬ 
ness  that  this  practice  should  cease.  They  prom¬ 
ised  the  unfortunate  a  reparation  of  his  fortunes — 
tLe  laborer  an  increase  of  his  wages — the  farmer 
an  addition  to  his  prices — the  hopeless  of  every  de¬ 
scription  the  grat.fication  of  being  soon  surprised 
in  their  despondency  by  the  timely  bounty  of  Gov¬ 
ernment,  to  be  distributed  among  them.  To  the 
nation  at  large,  they  promised  opulence  and  con¬ 
tentment,  the  restoration  of  law  and  order,  the 
healing  of  all  wounds,  the  restitution  of  a  1  rights, 
the  reparation  of  all  wrongs,  the  cure  of  all  illsl 
the  remedy  of  all  disorders,  the  observance  of  al, 
obligations,  the  reduction  of  all  burdens,  economy 
in  all  things,  security,  plenty  and  happiness  to  all 
men.  Thus  was  excited  every  passion  of  our  na¬ 
ture,  to  its  extremest  limit,  by  all  the  means  which 
the  joint  energies  of  ambition  and  rapacity  could 
employ.  Thus  was  the  public  heart  torn  and  la¬ 
cerated— the  public  mind  slung  and  goaded  ;  and 
thus  was  an  Administration,  conducted  by  men  of 
honor,  ability,  and  patriotism,  undermined  and 
overthrown  by  the  most  stupendous  conspiracy 
that  ever  yet  was  levelled  against  the  liberties  of  a 
free  people. 

What  has  been  the  result? 

On  the  4th  of  March,  1841,  the  whole  power  of 
the  country  changed  hand  ;  Mr.  Van  Buren  aid 
his  friends  retired  without  a  murmur,  and  gave 
place  to  General  Harrison  and  his.  Toe  event  of 
the  contest  had  for  months  been  known;  and,  from 


4 


that  moment,  proscription  for  opinion  ceased  to  be 
a  crime.  Throughout  the  land,  one  wild  and  uni¬ 
versal  cry  was  heard  for  the  blood  and  bread  of  the 
Democrats  in  office.  Before  he  had  left  the  banks 
of  the  Ohio,  the  President-elect  was  beset  by  in¬ 
truders  without  number,  and  importunities  beyond 
the  power  of  gratification.  On  his  arrival  in  the 
capital,  he  found  it  already  besieged  by  thousands, 
who  had  trooped  together  from  all  parts  of  the 
Union,  to  demand  of  him  the  spoils  of  a  conquered 
country.  There  was  an  impatient  ferocity  in  their 
looks,  like  that  of  a  rapacious  soldiery  when  re¬ 
strained  for  a  moment  from  the  sack  and  plunder 
of  a  subjugated  city.  He  was  a  man  scarred  with 
the  infirmities  of  age — of  a  heart,  I  believe,  that 
found  no  pleasure  in  the  passion  of  revenge;  and, 
therefore,  when  left  to  himself,  was  disinclined  to 
inflict,  without  cause,  upon  so  many  men,  the  mis¬ 
eries  of  a  general  removal.  But,  neither  his  in¬ 
firmities  nor  his  feelings  were  respected  by  his  vic¬ 
torious  parti?ans;  and,  on  the  very  first  day  of  his 
power — within  ten  minutes  after  the  official  oath 
was  administered,  and  whilst  he  was  yet  descend¬ 
ing  the  eastern  portico  of  the  Capitol — his  friends 
in  the  Senate  admonished  him  of  the  haste  he  was 
expected  to  make  in  the  execution  of  vengeance, 
and  the  distribution  of  spoil,  by  submitting  in  that 
body  the  follo  wing  resolution: 

Resolved ,  That  Blair  and  Rives  be  dismissed  as  printers  to 
the  Senate  for  the  twenty-seventh  Congress. 

On  the  seventh  day  after,  this  resolution  was 
passed;  and  thus  were  these  defenceless  citizens — 
without  a  crime,  or  even  a  charge  against  them, 
but  that  of  their  opinions — deprived  of  their  con¬ 
tract  solemnly  made  with  the  Senate,  their  bond 
annulled,  and  all  the  expenses  they  had  incurred 
to  execute  the  work,  thrown  as  a  dead  loss  upon 
them.  Here  was  an  example  the  President  was 
expected  to  follow;  and  from  that  day,  to  the  day 
of  his  final  affliction,  whether  in  his  mansion  or  in 
bis  walks,  in  public  or  in  private,  under  all  cir¬ 
cumstances,  and  at  all  times,  the  office-seekers  still 
clustered  around  him.  It  was  not  the  plea  of  his 
infirmities,  or  that  of  his  arduous  duties;  nor  was 
it  the  lifting  of  his  time-withered  hand  with  a  ges¬ 
ture  to  retire,  that  could  remove  the  dense  mass 
who  pursued  and  importuned  him.  In  spite  of  all 
these,  they  followed  him  up,  swarming  upon  him 
still  thicker  every  hour,  until,  at  last,  like  hornets, 
they  stung  him  to  the  death.  Nor  were  the  terrors 
of  a  death-bed,  or  the  solemn  condition  of  an  ex¬ 
piring  man,  sufficient  to  silence  their  clamors,  or 
stay,  for  an  instant,  the  removals  his  subordinates 
were  making  in  his  name.  For,  upon  the  authori¬ 
ty  of  that  name,  though  insensible  himself,  and 
sinking  to  the  grave,  the  more  cruel  of  his  counsel¬ 
lors  continued  to  swing  the  axe  of  execution,  as  if 
determined  that  the  last  mortal  sound  which  broke 
upon  the  ear  of  the  dying  President  should  be — not 
the  sound  of  prayer,  or  the  filial  sob,  but  the  dis 
tressful  scream  of  a  victim,  struck  dowu  in  his 
presence.  And,  even  after  his  death,  and  the 
translation  of  his  remains  from  the  capital  to  the 
West,  Democrats  were  spurned  from  office,  upon 
the  sole  allegation  that  he,  in  his  life,  had  intended 
their  removal. 

Such  was  the  first  result;  and  what  was  the 
next? 


They  had  declared  the  country  rained  by  Demo¬ 
cratic  councils.  They  had  declared  the  single  ob¬ 
ject  of  their  own  advent  to  be,  its  immediate  re¬ 
demption.  Yet,  notwithstanding  this,  no  sooner 
did  they  find  themselves  all-powerful,  and  the  peo¬ 
ple  all-powerless,  than  they  began  to  disclose 
other  objects,  far  different  from  that — objects,  in 
their  tendency,  ruinous  to  every  interest  they  had 
promised  to  foster,  save  the  interests  of  the  few 
against  the  rights  of  the  many;  and  blasting  to  all 
the  hopes  they  had  labored  to  excite,  save  the  hopes 
of  the  rapacious,  for  the  plunder  of  the  Govern¬ 
ment.  But  to  disclose  such  objects,  was  danger¬ 
ous,  if  their  execution  was  delayed.  It  was  im- 
poitant,  therefore,  (and  well  they  knew  it,)  to  forge 
and  rivet  their  system  of  measures  upon  the  coun¬ 
try,  whilst  the  public  mind  was  yet  feverish  and 
flighty,  from  the  inflammation  of  the  recent  strug¬ 
gle.  Strike  whilst  the  iron  is  het,  was  the  signal 
passed  to  his  followers,  by  him  who  spoke  for  the 
whole,  and  whom  all  obeyed.  Let  not  the  people 
cool  down;  but  now,  while  the  glow  and  giddiness 
of  triumph  are  upon  them,  let  us  rush  to  the  capi¬ 
tal,  and  there,  in  the  midst  of  the  general  glee, 
bind  and  clinch  our  system  on  the  nation. 

This,  it  seems,  was  the  policy  which  prompted 
the  convention  of  Congress,  in  extraordinary  ses¬ 
sion,  on  the  31st  of  May,  1841. 

On  that  day,  the  extra  session  commenced;  and 
then  it  was  that  those  measures  were  proposed, 
which  express  the  real  motives  of  the  leaders,  and 
which  have  brought  the  Government  and  the  coun¬ 
try  to  their  present  condition.  They  were  then 
victors  over  the  whole  field  of  power.  With  the 
Executive — with  a  majority  overwhelming,  in  both 
branches  of  Congress,  there  was  nothing  to  restrain 
the  full  sway  of  their  pleasure  or  their  principles. 
This  they  knew,  and  this  they  felt;  and  therefore 
it  was,  that  their  chief  in  the  Senate,  with  all  the 
swaggering  indelicacy  of  one  unaccustomed  to  suc¬ 
cess,  openly  proclaimed  to  the  Democracy  of  the 
body,  that  we  had  been  condemned  by  the  judg¬ 
ment  of  the  people — had  been  brought  together 
only  for  execution;  and  that  all  we  uttered  was  to 
be  heard  as  nothing  but  the  complaints  of  male¬ 
factors  on  their  way  to  the  scaffold.  Such  was 
the  delirium  of  meritless  triumph  and  vulgar  re¬ 
venge  with  which  the  Federalists  began  their 
work;  who,  without  preparing  anything  in  its  stead, 
laid  hold  upon  the  sub-treasury,  and  tore  it  to  the 
ground.  Thus  did  these  infatuated  men — they 
who  had  most  falsely  charged  the  Democratic  party 
with  having  committed  the  public  treasure  to  the 
sole  custody  of  the  Executive;  with  having  united 
in  his  person  both  the  sword  and  the  purse — thus 
did  they,  among  the  very  first  acts  of  their  power, 
do,  themselves,  the  very  same  thing  so  unjustly  as¬ 
cribed  to  others,  by  the  repeal  offthe  only  law 
which  placed  the  money  of  the  nation  out  of  the 
reach  of  the  President.  No  bank,  no  law,  no  reso¬ 
lution,  had  they  passed,  to  take  the  place  of  the  act 
repealed.  Nor  is  there,  to  this  day,  any  such  pro¬ 
vision,  or  any  such  likely  to  be,  while  the  present 
Congress  remains. 

And  why  is  this?  If  the  majority  cannot  get  the 
fiscality  they  desire,  can  they  not  pass  an  act  to  se¬ 
cure  the  revenue?  or  do  they  intend  to  leave  it,  as 
it  is,  exposed  to  the  hazard  of  official  pillage,  in 


5 


order  to  try,  once  more,  the  coercion  of  the  people 
into  a  national  bank? 

These  men  came  into  power,  as  we  were  told, 
upon  the  holy  mission  of  guarding  the  sanctity  of 
the  Constitution,  the  law,  and  all  human  obliga¬ 
tions.  So  pious  was  their  reverence  for  the  ob¬ 
servance  of  contracts,  that  some  of  their  number 
were  willing  that  this  Government,  though  penny¬ 
less  itself,  and  plunging  in  debt,  should  assume  the 
debts  of  the  States,  rather  than  witness  their  repu¬ 
diation.  Nevertheless,  these  very  same  men,  the 
chosen  and  the  anointed  guardians  of  all  things 
sacred,  by  one  general  act,  with  the  name  of  bank¬ 
ruptcy  for  its  caption,  repudiated  the  debts  of  the 
larger  debtors  throughout  the  entire  nation.  By  his 
single  oath,  they  allowed  the  interested  party,  if  his 
debts  were  large  and  his  means  considerable,  to 
cancel  his  bond;  and  thus  to  ruin  the  friend  or  the 
neighbor,  who,  as  creditor  or  security,  had  confided 
in  his  honor.  I  say,  if  the  debts  were  large;  be¬ 
cause,  if  small,  and  the  debtor  poor,  the  expense  of 
the  process  makes  the  law  unavailable,  and,  there¬ 
fore,  a  nullity  to  him.  To  execute  the  act,  the 
Federal  judiciary  passes  over  the  Constitution, 
usurps  the  rightful  jurisdiction  of  the  local  courts, 
defies  and  spurns  the  sovereignty  of  the  States. 
But  no  matter  for  that — the  greater  bankrupts,  the 
magnificent  millioniares  of  the  paper  system,  were 
brought  to  bankruptcy — not  by  misfortune  in  legiti¬ 
mate  trade — not  by  accident  beyond  the  power  of 
discretion,  but  by  the  eagerness  of  an  avarice  seek¬ 
ing  to  gratify  itself  in  the  gamblings  of  speculation, 
and  then  wasting,  in  splendid  profusion,  all  that  the 
fortune  of  the  hazard  placed  within  its  reach.  As 
men  already  ruined  and  desperate,  they  had  enter¬ 
ed  the  contest  of  1840,  with  the  pledge  of  the 
Federalists,  that  their  debts  should  be  treated  as 
gambling  obligations,  and  sponged  by  the  law  and 
an  oath.  And  this  pledge  alone,  of  the  many 
made,  has  Federalism  faithfully  fulfilled. 

Economy,  let  it  be  remembered,  had  been  prom¬ 
ised  as  a  policy  proper  in  itself,  and  especially  so 
in  the  then  necessitous  state  of  tbe  treasury.  Ana 
yet,  by  this  very  convention  of  Congress,  at  a  time 
not  appointed  by  the  law,  three  hundred  and  nine¬ 
ty-one  thousand  dollars  were  wasted  in  the  pay¬ 
ment  of  its  members,  and  other  expenses  of  the 
session. 

Twenty-five  thousand  dollars  were  next  bestowed 
as  a  gratuity  upon  the  widow  of  the  late  President; 
and  this,  without  any  request  from  her,  or  neces¬ 
sity  found  in  her  pecuniary  circumstances.  So  far 
from  any  such  necessity  then  existing,  or  likely  to 
exist,  it  was  a  fact  well  known  and  declared  at  the 
time,  that  the  private  fortune  of  that  respectable 
lady  placed  her  above  the  humility  of  asking  such 
favors,  from  any  quarter  whatever.  Still,  the 
money  was  voted  from  the  treasury,  as  if  taxes 
were  nothing  to  the  people,  and  waste  the  duty  of 
the  Government. 

At  its  last  session,  which  closed  on  the  4th  of 
March,  1841,  the  preceding  Congress  had  made 
all  the  usual  and  needful  appropriations,  and 
provided  the  means  for  the  public  service  of  the 
ensuing  year.  But,  regardless  of  this — regardless 
alike  of  the  condition  of  the  country  and  of  their 
own  promises,  so  solemnly  given,  the  ruling  ma¬ 
jority  in  the  present  Congress  proceeded  but  three 


months  after,  and  before  one-third  of  those  ap¬ 
propriations  were  expended,  to  appropriate,  for  the 
service  of  the  very  same  year,  an  addition  of  five 
million  and  forty-three  thousand  dollars.  The  name 
of  economy  was  no  longer  heard,  but  when  pro¬ 
nounced  by  the  Democrats,  to  remind  the  Federal¬ 
ists  of  what  they  had  pledged,  and  to  rebuke  them 
'or  what  they  were  about.  Heedless  of  this,  the 
eaders,  who  projected  these  measures,  seemed  but 
the  more  diligent  to  discover  every  excuse  for  ex¬ 
travagance,  that  could  find  impunity  in  the  general 
pretext  of  the  public  good. 

But  those  who  expend,  must  also  accumulate  ; 
and,  in  the  case  of  Government,  taxes  and  loans 
are  the  chief  sources  of  supply.  Hence  it  was  that 
after,  by  this  additional  expenditure,  they  had  ef¬ 
fectually  picked  the  very  bones  of  the  treasury, 
they  next  turned  their  attention  to  the  increase  of 
the  taxes.  Here  was  a  nerve  to  be  touched,  that 
ran  through  the  body  of  the  people;  and,  therefore, 
it  was  important  to  prepare  them  for  the  shock,  by 
the  soothing  process  of  distribution.  They  had 
left  in  the  coffers  of  the  Government  not  an  unap¬ 
propriated  dollar.  The  ordinary  income  was  short 
of  the  extraordinary  outlay.  Taxes,  had  they  been 
sufficient  in  amount,  came  in  too  tardily  to  meet 
the  rapidity  of  expenditure  ;  and  to  borrow,  be¬ 
came,  consequently,  the  only  immediate  resource. 
This  state  of  things  was  known  and  acknowledged, 
because  brought  about  by  the  ruling  majority. 
What  then  did  they  do?  In  aggravation  of  these 
evils,  and  as  if  fatally  bent  upon  the  utter  bank¬ 
ruptcy  and  ruin  of  the  Government  confided  to 
their  care,  they  proceeded  to  snatch  every  dollar 
accruing  to  the  treasury  from  the  public  domain, 
and  to  cast  it  away  in  pittances  to  the  States.  No 
consciousness  of  its  folly,  no  barrier  in  the  Con¬ 
stitution,  no  “beggarly  account  of  empty  boxes” 
from  the  Treasury  Department,  no  terrors  of  a 
national  debt,  could  possibly  arrest  them  in  this. 
Nor  was  the  injustice  of  augmenting  taxes,  when 

the  means  of  the  people  to  pay  were  diminishing, 
sufficient  to  retard,  much  less  to  prevent,  this  prot- 

ligate  waste  of  the  nation’s  resources.  Distribute 
they  would;  and  that,  too,  at  the  hazard  of  the  pub¬ 
lic  execration.  They  confided  in  the  craft  of  the 
scheme,  and  were  willing  to  risk  its  exposure.  One 
dollar  was  to  be  given  by  the  Government,  through 
the  States,  to  the  people;  and  for  that,  three  paid  back, 
by  the  people,  through  the  custom-house,  to  the 
Government.  The  people  would  see,  and  might 
be  tempted,  by  the  amount  they  received;  that 
which  they  paid,  was  to  be  taken  from  them,  in  the 
dark  and  at  a  distance.  The  first  process  was  to 
be  direct  and  visible — the  second,  circuitous  and 
obscure;  and  it  was  upon  this  obscurity  that  the 
Federalists  relied  for  impunity  against  detection  in 
the  imposture.  The  act  of  distribution  was  there¬ 
fore  passed;  and  then,  in  an  instant  after,  the  same 
men  who  passed  it,  urged  that  very  act,  by  which 
the  land  revenue  was  thus  excluded  from  the  treas¬ 
ury,  as  an  additional  reason  why  the  taxes  upon  the 
people  should  be  immediately  increased.  A  tax  of 
six  millions  of  dollars  was  accordingly  added,  in  the 
form  of  tariff  duties,  to  the  burdens  before  im¬ 
posed  upon  the  nation. 

But,  in  view  of  the  lost  revenue  distributed,  the 
vast  appropriations  already  made,  and  those  intend- 


6 


ed  for  the  future,  even  this  increase  of  taxes  would 
prove  inadequate.  A  loan  of  twelve  millions  of 
dollars  was,  therefore,  authorized  upon  the  credit  of 
the  people,  and  the  pledge  of  their  farms  and  work¬ 
shops,  for  its  payment,  principal  and  interest.  This, 
it  was  supposed,  would,  together  with  the  taxes  and 
treasury  notes  already  afloat,  afford  a  fund  suffi¬ 
cient  to  feed,  for  the  present,  even  the  extravagance 
of  the  ruling  power.  A  national  debt  would,  it 
was  true,  with  all  its  evils,  be  the  inevitable  con¬ 
sequence.  So  much  the  better;  for  such  a  debt,  in¬ 
stead  of  being  a  reason  with  Federalists  why  they 
should  economise  the  public  income,  has  ever  been, 
and  yet  is,  wiih  them,  of  all  reasons,  the  very 
strongest  for  the  most  boundless  prodigality  of  ex 
penditure.  And  therefore,  with  this  infatuated  af¬ 
fection  for  a  public  debt,  they  were  not  to  be  satis¬ 
fied  with  the  twelve  million  loan  as  a  beginning;  but, 
on  the  contrary,  they  proceeded  immediately  to  add 
sixteen  millions  to  that — the  last  being  intended  as 
the  basement  stock  of  the  fiscality — a  national  bank 
more  hideous,  infinitely,  in  all  its  features,  than 
was  the  former  institution,  whose  conduct,  decay, 
and  dissolution,  have  appalled  the  world;  have 
doomed  to  penury  so  many  families,  and  imparted 
so  much  impurity  to  the  social  and  political  morals 
of  the  country. 

Nature  never  abandons  men  absolutely  to  their 
own  indiscretions;  for,  even  in  the  gross  confusion 
of  public  affairs,  she  often  interposes  her  silent  au¬ 
thority  to  check  the  dominant  power  in  a  State, 
whenever  it  threatens  to  inflict  a  degree  of  misery 
she  never  intended  mankind  should  endure.  Out 
of  the  bosom  of  the  Whig  party,  therefore,  the  veto 
sprung,  to  strike  down  the  forthcoming  monster, 
whilst  yet  in  its  foetus  condition.  The  presiding 
magistrate  had  received  the  sceptre  from  the  hands 
of  that  party,  but  not  upon  tbe  condition  of  perjury 
and  dishonor.  He  felt  that  he  owed  some  alle¬ 
giance  to  the  Constitution  of  his  country;  and  as  it 
was  the  constitutional  veto  which  alone  intercepted 

tbe  bank  and  the  debt  the  majority  desired,  they  re¬ 
solved  ie>  tmaob  die  CuusiliuiKm  H&elf,  ohQ  iIjc  Pitra> 

ident  who  had  dared  to  support  it.  Thus  far,  upon 
that  point  he  snll  stands  firm.  How  long  the  Con¬ 
stitution  shall  stand,  remains  lor  the  people  and 
the  States  to  determine.  It  is  enough  that  the  na¬ 
tion  now  knows  full  well  the  des  gns  of  the  Fede¬ 
ral  leaders,  their  principles,  their  measures — the 
measuieof  their  ambi'iun  and  profligacy,  as  thus 
displayed,  in  an  extra  session  of  three  months  and 
fourteen  days  Ouranon,  and  which  closed  its  memo 
rable  labors  on  the  13  h  of  September,  1841. 

Congress  commenced  its  present  session  on  the 
6th  of  December,  1841,  and,  up  to  the  date  of  this 
letter,  has  continued,  without  intermission,  for 
seven  months  and  seventeen  days.  It  will  adjourn 
some  time  or  other — but  not,  I  presume,  until  the 
master  majority  sh ^  11  have  more  effectually  (if  that 
be  possible)  exhausted  their  own  passions  and  the 
patience  of  the  people,  as  well  as  the  resources  and 
credit  of  the  G  vernment.  When  they  assembled, 
that  silent  but  thorough  revolution,  which  is  now 
perfected  in  the  public  mir.d,  had  then  greatly  ad¬ 
vanced,  as  was  visible  in  the  popular  elections. 
Upon  almost  every  battle-field  where,  in  1840, 
they  triumphed,  they  have  since  been  routed 
by  a  people  indignant  at  having  been  so  sheme- 


fully  betrayed.  Full  one-half  of  their  numbers, 
both  in  the  Senate  and  in  the  House,  now  find 
themselves  unsupported — their  principles  and  their 
measures  sternly  condemned  by  the  States  and 
districts  that  sent  them  here.  In  Federali>m,  how¬ 
ever,  this  has  produced  no  change.  From  the  be¬ 
ginning  of  the  present,  it  has  continued  the  policy 
of  the  extra  session ;  and  yet  continues  to  pursue 
that  policy,  with  all  the  preternatural  energy  of 
desdair — as  though  resolved,  during  the  brief  futu¬ 
rity  of  its  power,  to  stamp  upon  the  country,  as 
deeply  as  possible,  the  dark  impress  of  its  baleful 
genius.  With  these  views,  the  party  have  proceed¬ 
ed.  They  have  authorized  an  additional  loan  of 
five  millions  of  dollars.  They  have  added  five  mil - 
lions  more  to  the  treasury  notes  previously  issued. 
But  these,  with  those  of  the  extra  session,  are  still 
not  enough;  and,  therefore,  another  tariff  has  pass¬ 
ed  the  House,  and  will  as  certainly  pass  the  Sen¬ 
ate,  imposing  thirteen  millions  more  of  taxes  upon 
the  country.  Thus,  every  article  from  abroad 
— all  things  that  minister  to  the  wants  of  men — 
tea,  coffee,  whatever  is  most  needful  to  the  poor¬ 
est  citizen — each  one  and  all,  now  yields  its  trib¬ 
ute,  to  fill  yet  fuller  the  already  distended  maw  of 
insatia’e  power. 

And  yet,  after  all  this — loans,  taxes,  and  treasu¬ 
ry  notes — how  stands  the  treasury  itsell?  Still 
empty  !  How  stands  the  public  credit — the  credit 
of  this  great  Government — the  credit  that  never 
once  was  sullied  when  Democracy  presided — now 
stands  it  now?  Down;  and  still  hopelessly  sinking 
down  lower,  by  far,  than  that  of  any  respectable 
farmer  in  Ohio — treasury  notes,  if  not  at  interest, 
depreciated,  with  no  prospect  of  rising — the  Gov¬ 
ernment  drafts  daily  protested  and  dishonored — its 
bonds  hawked  about  in  tbe  market,  and  returned 
without  a  bidder;  and  the  Government  everywhere, 
and  in  all  forms,  treated  as  an  insolvent. 

Appropriations,  nevertheless,  go  on  as  profusely 
as  ever — quite  as  much  so,  as  though  the  treasury 
were  full,  and  absolutely  exhaustless.  For,  from  the 
amuuul  already  passed,  and  that  pending  with  the 

certainty  of  passage,  it  is  manifest  that  this  will, 
at  tbe  end  of  the  session,  bear  its  full  and  just  pro¬ 
portion  to  all  the  other  limbs  of  their  monstrous 
system. 

Claims — some  the  most  base,  and  others  the  most 
baseless — are  now  presented  against  the  Govern¬ 
ment,  and  treated  with  the  serious  respect  due  only 
to  tbe  just  demands  of  the  honest  citizen.  The 
holders  of  such  claims  seem  to  have  discovered  a 
mutual  sympathy  between  the  majority  of  this 
Congress  and  themselves.  They  repair  to  the  Cap¬ 
itol  with  the  instinct  that  directs  the  vulture  to  the 
carcass. 

The  mi!ifia  of  Massachusetts — they,  the  very  same 
who,  during  the  late  war,  when  the  country  was  in¬ 
vaded,  and  they  ordered  by  the  President  into  the  pub¬ 
lic  service,  positively  refused  obedience — refused 
to  pass  tbe  line  of  their  State — refused  to  pull  a 
'rigger  in  the  defence  of  the  Republic — they  who, 
by  that  very  refusal,  encouraged  the  British,  allow¬ 
ed  them  a  lodgment  in  a  Massachusetts  seaport— 
they  who  trafficked  with,  instead  of  fighting,  the 
public  enemy — they  have,  nevertheless,  lived  long 
enough  to  laugh  in  secret  at  an  American  Senate 
for  having,  twenty-nine  years  after,  voted  to  them 


[7 


the  third  of  a  million  from  the  national  treasury,  for 
these  their  services  in  the  late  war.  These  men,  who 
in  any  other  country  would  have  been  treated  as 
traitors,  are,  in  this,  about  to  be  paid  in  money  for 
their  treason,  by  the  very  Government  they  be¬ 
trayed. 

Next  come  the  heirs  of  Gen.  Hull,  with  their 
demand  for  the  salary  of  their  father,  as  Governor 
of  the  Territory  of  Michigan,  during  the  very  time , 
and  for  no  other  time,  that  the  Territory  was  in  pos¬ 
session  of  the  British — surrendered  to  them  by  Hull 
himself, ,  together  with  the  gallant  army  from  Ohio — 
a  crime  for  which  he  was  then  under  arrest,  and 
afterwards  condemned  by  the  law  to  death,  as  a 
traitor.  Yet  this  claim,  the  very  presentation  of 
which  was  an  outrage  to  every  American  citizen, 
and  especially  so  to  the  citizens  of  Ohio,  whose  he¬ 
roic  people  had  thus  been,  by  this  very  man,  so 
basely  surrendered  to  the  enemy  as  prisoners  of 
war — this  claim  found  favor  in  a  Whig  committee 
in  the  Senate,  was  advocated  upon  the  floor,  and 
defeated  only  because  some  of  that  party,  and  all 
the  Democrats,  were  ashamed  to  dishonor  the  body 
by  its  passage. 

But  economy  and  justice — Federal  economy  and 
justice — were,  with  that  very  same  committee, 
found  a  sufficient  bar  to  the  repayment  of  the  fine 
imposed  by  a  vindictive  judge  on  Andrew  Jack- 
son,  for  having  expelled  traitors  from  his  camp 
during  his  glorious  defence  of  New  Orleans. 

If  these  things  were  not  on  record,  no  individual 
should  state  them,  as  the  word  of  no  man  would 
alone  be  deemed,  by  the  country,  conclusive  of 
facts  so  derogatory  to  the  character  of  the  Ameri¬ 
can  Congress.  Yet  facts  they  are — and  that  of  rec¬ 
ord,  too — whosoever  may  be  injared  by  them. 

Amidst  the  systematic  policy  of  public  ruin  which 
this  Congress  has  pursued,  it  has  introduced,  for  the 
first  time,  a  practice  in  the  highest  degree  danger¬ 
ous  to  the  liberties  of  the  people.  I  allude  to  the 
practice  of  the  House  in  gagging  the  minoritv:  and 
that  of  the  Senate  in  veiling  from  the  public  eye 
the  real  condition  of  the  Government.  In  both,  the 
Democratic  minorities  are  powerless.  The  Federal 
majorities  direct  all  action — hurry  or  retard  all 
business,  at  pleasure.  It  is  in  the  House  that  the 
great  money  bills  chiefly  originate.  There,  they 
have  been  studiously  kept  back  for  month  after 
month.  In  the  mean  time,  as  an  excuse  for  delay, 
debate  has  been  encouraged  on  matters  of  indiffer¬ 
ence.  Then,  all  thing?  being  ready,  those  great 
measures  have  been  suddenly  brought  up;  and,  al¬ 
ter  the  most  trivial  discussion,  the  gag  applied,  and 
the  voice  silenced,  under  the  ridiculous  pretext  of  a 
want  of  time.  On  such  occasions  the  Democracy 
are  bushed,  not  by  the  previous  question,  but  a 
stern  resolution  which  seals  the  lips,  and  forces 
through  the  measure  without  consideration,  how¬ 
ever  important  its  provisions,  and  without  the  ex¬ 
posure  of  its  enormities,  though  destructive  it  may 
be  to  the  best  interests  of  the  country.  Thus  have 
millions  been  appropriated,  and  taxes  by  the  mil¬ 
lion  voted  in  the  very  last  month  of  our  seven 
months’  session,  without  one  single  man  of  the  mi¬ 
nority  in  the  House  having  had  time  enough  al¬ 
lowed  him  to  expose  the  impolicy  or  enormity  of 


such  measures.  But  in  matters  of  no  moment,  no 
gag  is  applied,  because  in  these  the  freedom  of 
speech  endangers  neither  corruption  nor  despotism. 
To  silence  the  representative,  is  to  spike  the  ears  of 
the  people.  It  is  both  their  right  and  bis  that  he 
should  speak.  It  is  theirs,  because  it  is  their  busi¬ 
ness  he  is  doing.  It  is  his,  because  he  is  responsi¬ 
ble  for  what  he  does.  Their  safety  consists  in  ma¬ 
king  him  explain  the  reason  of  his  votes — his,  in 
being  able  to  do  so.  Silence  and  secrecy  are  to 
despotism,  as  are  speech  and  publicity  to  freedom; 
the  two  strongest  elements  of  its  power,  and  only 
guardians  of  its  safety.  It  is  for  these  reasons  that 
[  regret  the  closing  of  its  doors,  by  the  Senate, 
in  the  matter  of  nominations — a  practice  indefensi¬ 
ble  by  argument,  and  excused  only  by  its  antiquity. 
But  to  suppress  resolutions  of  inquiry,  seeking 
from  the  Treasury  Department  the  facts  of  its  ac¬ 
tual  condition — and  that,  too,  at  a  time  when  mo¬ 
ney-measures  of  the  first  moment — tax,  loan,  and 
appropriation  bills  are  all  pending,  and  all  relating 
directly  to  those  very  facts; — to  suppress  such  reso¬ 
lutions,  as  did  the  Federal  majority  in  the  Senate, 
is  nothing  less  than  to  compel  men  to  legislate  ia 
the  absence  of  all  reasons  for  the  votes  they  give, 
and  to  withhold  from  the  people  things  of  the  most 
serious  import  to  them.  Those  who  hide,  will  ex 
cite  suspicion;  and  this  practice  of  suppressing 
facts,  had  it  been  adopted  by  any  other  Congress, 
would  have  attracted  the  attention  and  incurred 
the  frown  of  the  country.  But  so  many  are  the 
objects  of  just  alarm  with  which  this  Congress  has 
filled  the  public  mind,  that  the  people  very  natural¬ 
ly  feel  the  more  solicitude  to  see  its  session  brought 
to  a  close,  and  the  evils  it  still  threatens  thus  ar¬ 
rested,  and  to  recount  those  which  it  has  already 
irretrievably  inflicted  upon  the  nation. 

There  are  three  great  measures — two  of  Con¬ 
gress  and  one  of  the  Executive — the  “appor¬ 
tionment  bill” — that  for  “remedial  justice” — and 
the  interposition  in  the  affairs  of  Rhode  Island; 

each,  as  I  believe,  infracting  the  Constitution  ia 
several  particwlars,  ana  invaaing  aiiire  me  sov¬ 
ereignty  of  the  States  and  of  the  people.  They 
are  measures  of  vast  magnitude,  and  threaten  to 
their  authors  a  terrible  futurity.  They  are  the  iron 
frame  of  a  despotic  system,  never  before  set  up 
in  this  country — a  system  which,  if  allowed  to 
stand,  will  prove  a  Bastile  to  the  liberties  of  the 
nation.  But  such  measures  excite  reflections  that 
swell  beyond  the  limits  of  a  letter;  and  I  therefore 
name,  only  to  mark  them  for  the  future. 

For  sixteen  months  and  nineteen  days  has  this  Gov¬ 
ernment  been  confided  to  the  Federal  party.  Du¬ 
ring  every  hour  of  that  time,  (save  five  months  and 
nineteen  days,)  has  a  Federal  Congress  been  in  ses¬ 
sion — and  here  still  it  is,  moping  and  feeling  about, 
amid  the  ruins  itself  has  made,  to  find  some  other 
object  of  waste  or  destruction.  In  the  mean  time, 
the  Democratic  minorities  in  the  two  Houses  have 
done  all  that  men  could  do,  who  were  in  the  power 
of  others,  to  mitigate  the  evils  the  majority  were 
entailing  upon  the  country.  But,  being  powerless 
as  to  numbers,  they  could  effect  but  little,  by  argu¬ 
ment  or  remonstrance,  addtessed  to  men  who 
would  listen  to  neither  reason  nor  experience. 


8 


You  must,  my  dear  sir,  excuse  the  length  of  this 
letter,  and  be  assured  that  I  am,  in  great  sincerity, 
Your  friend, 

W.  ALLEN. 

Maj.  T.  J.  Morgan,  Chairman  of  the  Young 
Men’s  State  Central  Committee. 

Mr.  Brough  presented  and  read  the  following 
letter  from  Senator  Tappan;  which  was  also,  on 
motion,  ordered  to  be  published: 

Washington  City,  July  15,  1842. 

Dear  Sir:  In  declining  to  accept  your  kind  in¬ 
vitation  to  attend  the  proposed  convention  of  the 
Democratic  young  men  of  Ohio,  at  Columbu',  on 
the  28th  instant,  I  assure  you  that  it  would  give 
me  great  pleasure  to  be  with  you,  and  that  I  would 
not  hesitate  to  join  you  on  that  occasion,  if  a  due 
regard  to  my  duties  here  would  permit  so  long  an 
absence  from  my  post  at  this  most  interesting  pe¬ 
riod  of  the  session. 

I  look  with  strong  hope  and  faith  to  the  young 
men  of  the  nation,  and  foremost  to  the  young  men  of 
Ohio,  to  carry  forward  those  improvements  now 
in  progress  in  our  social  organization — improve¬ 
ments  which  shall  secure  for  the  future  perfect 
equality  of  rights  and  privileges  to  every  citizen. 
A  community  may  be  free  from  foreign  dominion, 
and  yet  suffer  all  the  evils  of  domestic  tyranny  and 
oppression,  if  they  permit  privileged  orders  to  ex¬ 


ist  among  them;  for  exclusive  advantages  in  Gov¬ 
ernment  cannot  be  conceded  to  the  few,  without 
taking  from  the  many  their  just  rights;  and  all  hav¬ 
ing  an  equal  right,  by  the  laws  of  nature,  to  seek 
the  means  of  happiness  in  the  acquisition  or  pursuit 
of  wealth  or  fame,  or  civil  distinction,  it  would  be 
hostile  to  the  soundest  principles  of  social  order  for 
the  law  to  interfere  in  such  pursuits,  in  favor  of 
any  class  or  section  of  the  community. 

Hitherto,  much  of  individual  selfishness  has  gov¬ 
erned  the  legislation  of  States;  but  a  brighter  day 
seems  dawning  in  Ohio,  and  her  young  men  are 
now  invited,  by  every  consideration  of  benevolence 
and  patriotism,  to  make  their  native  Siate  a  more 
perfect  example  of  freedom  and  equality  than  the 
world  has  yet  seen.  I  pray  you  let  us  old  men, 
as  we  shake  off  this  mortal  coil,  have  the  well- 
founded  belief  that  we  are  leaving  the  principles 
of  enlightened  freedom  in  safe  and  better  hands; 
that  legislation  is  ceasing  to  be  the  instrument  of 
individual  cupidity,  and  is  becoming  the  nursing 
mother  of  equality  and  justice., 

That  your  meeting  may  be  satisfactory  to  your¬ 
selves,  in  advancing  the  permanent  welfare  and 
honor  of  the  State,  is  the  wish  of 

Your  sincere  friend, 
BENJ.  TAPPAN. 

Thomas  J.  Morgan,  esq.  Chairman,  &c. 


